"For a number of reasons," said Atticus. "The main one is, if I didn't, I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the Legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again."

"You mean if you didn't defend that man, Jem and me wouldn't have to mind you anymore?"

"That's about right."

"Why?"

"Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one's mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change ... it's a good one, even if it does resist learning."

"Atticus, are we going to win it?"

"No, honey."

"Then why ---"

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win," Atticus said.

This City Council, depending on how you look at it, was either put in an untenable position by being forced to decide the fate of Confederate monuments in the public square — or given an opportunity to make a pivotal and profound statement about the legacy it wants to leave behind.

It can't straddle history by keeping one foot in the past and the other in the future. It must seize the moment: If they want to hold their heads high, council members must demand that the towering Confederate War Memorial be removed from downtown, no matter the cost.

And that Robert E. Lee statue that was removed from an Oak Lawn park last summer and stored in a warehouse ought to be sold to the highest bidder, especially if the staff is right about it fetching close to a million bucks.

Nothing wrong with the Confederate Monument Task Force's idea of placing both monuments in a North Texas museum for preservation, education and "full historical context." But if the Texas Civil War Museum in White Settlement wants either of them, it should come up with the dough to purchase or relocate them.

Surely there are some philanthropists or foundations out there that would be eager to facilitate such a deal. That money can and should be used to offset the cost of reconfiguring Lee Park and Pioneer Park Cemetery near Dallas City Hall and the convention center.

What Dallas can't afford to do is renew the debate about whether inflammatory statues in the public square should stay or go. They must go.

Victoria Miller of Dallas reads an inscription on the Confederate War Memorial in Pioneer Park cemetery in downtown Dallas on Aug. 23, 2017. She and the rest of her family came to see the memorial after seeing so much of the debate in the news.

(Tom Fox/Staff Photographer)

Talk of leaving the Confederate War Memorial where it is and adding historical context will only prolong the misery and headache this relic is causing. This isn't a nondescript edifice, like a school, where adding context serves to educate.

While defending his support of removing the Lee statue last summer, Mayor Mike Rawlings remains sympathetic to those who want to preserve some of the relics rather than bury or tear them all down.

"We should not erase the worst part of Dallas," Rawlings said, referencing the "chilling" and "scary" inscriptions on the Confederate War Memorial, originally erected in Old City Park circa 1896 and moved to its present location in 1961.

"The power of art is through juxtaposition," Rawlings said, adding that he's "not into destroying historical things."

But, he said, "How do we do that in a way that takes us to the next level?"

We'll find out when the council brings all of this up for vote — possibly next month. Like Atticus Finch, there's no way for the mayor to "win," no matter how deftly he deals with the competing forces around the horseshoe and across the city.

This is a delicate matter.

Still, Rawlings has got to figure out if he wants to be able to hold up his head in town. There's only one way to do that. He's got to keep his moral backbone straight and sit with Tom Robinson on this one.